Improvement in hoese-seoes



@einen tat-rs atrnt @fitta IMPROVEMENT IN HORSE-SHOES.

tlge .flgshal aferra tu in time @anni tant mit mating aart nf tigt simu. y'

TO `ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. LEWIS, of the city andA county of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, have linvented a new and useful Improvement in Toe-Calkins for Horse-Shoes; and I do hereby declare Ithat the following specification, taken in connection with the drawings making a part of the same, is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

Figure 1 is a side view..

Eigurc Qis au end view.

Figure 3 is a top view.

Iirthe Letters Patent granted to Charles H. Perkins, of Providence, Rhode Island, `on the 9th day of' April, A. 13.1861, an improved toe-calkin is described which is provided with one or more tapering steel spurs placed midway between the extremities, or nearly so. The description of said invention states that these tapering vpoints will, from the effect of thc blows of the hammer in setting it upon the shoe, as well as from the effect of the unequal contraction of the metal, become crooked-like the roots of a tooth, and the callciu thereby bemeehanically held upon the shoe in aid of the welded joint., In fact, however, I am well aware from knowledge derived as the agent of the Union Horse-Shoe Company of Providence, to which company said Letters Patent have been assigned, and by whom these articles have been largely manufactured, that the steel spurs, as shaped by the said Perkins, and asrepresented in the drawings accompanying his patent, do not bend toward cach other, and hold the calkin te the shoe, as it is claimed that they do in his said patent.

I have found that'by altering the shape of the spursfrom the `pyramidal form shown inthe drawings ofthe i patent referred to, by giving to one of the faces of each spur a curved surface, they will, when the toe-calkin is driven down upon the shoe, bend themselves in the direction opposite to the side which is so curved. The reason why =this diierence in result should attend this change of form isv obvious, when it is considered that in the onecase, so long as the faces of the spur are made Yup of triangular planes, there will be no more tendency of the metal to cripple itself'than is experienced in the driving into a. board of hard wood of a cut nail, one side of which, from the manner in which the plate is cut, is frequently more'inclined with reference to the axis ofthe nail, and consequently longer than the other side. While on the other hand, it' one ot' the faces of` tln spur he curved outward from the point toward the base, the natural direction of the point, as the spur is driver into the shoe, will be in continuation of the line of curvature, for the reason that on the curved side there if necessarily a greater displacement of the metal of the shoe than upon the side where it is straight, and consequently there will be a greater resistance to the entrance ot' that side of the spur, as compared with the resist- -ance to the entrance'of the otherside, and the resultant of the force of the blow to set the calkin and the opposing excess of resistance will he in the general direction ofthe curve of the side. This' change in'thefform ofthe spur' constitutes'my improvement, and enables that result to be accomplished which, with any other form of spur, if not impracticable, is much less likely to be effected.

Inathe accompanying drawings, A represents the toe-calkin, and a the several spurs. Each of these spurs has, as will be seen, one of its faces b curved, but otherwise the article is the same as is described in Letters Patent granted to Charles H. Perkins before mentioned.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The improvement inY toe-calkins described, which consists in making one of the faces b of each ofthe holding spurs a, curved from the top outward toward the base, as and for the purposes specified.

GEO. W. LEWIS.

Witnessesf W. B. VINCENT, W. W. RIcKARD. 

